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The U.S. government needs to stop taking a soft line with China and realize that they are acting as our adversary, not our friend.

A new report indicates that Chinese hackers have gained access to the plans for sensitive U.S. weapons systems. Officials say this breach may accelerate the advancement of Chinese weapons systems and could weaken U.S. defenses in the event of conflict with China or its allies. This is not the first time China has sought to gain the upper hand over the United States through unscrupulous means, and it will not be the last.

Designs accessed by the Chinese hackers include those for U.S. missile defense systems used in Asia, along with aircraft such as the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter and the Black Hawk attack helicopter. This technology has cost American taxpayers trillions of dollars, but China has now accessed this technology illegally at almost no cost. China’s cyber espionage efforts may be helping the communist country to close the technology gap with the United States in case of a military altercation, yet the United States has not yet taken any strong action to stop it.

The Obama administration has sometimes urged the Chinese to cease their cyber espionage operations against the U.S., but any astute observer has to wonder if the response might be stronger if the U.S. were not so dependent on the Chinese economy. China is the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, and the U.S. trade deficit with China regularly totals in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Many U.S. companies, such as Walmart and Apple, are dependent on China for the cheap production of goods. The United States has intertwined itself with China in a way that makes it difficult to address problems such as those raised in this latest hacking incident.

National defense is one of the main duties of government, but the government cannot do its job properly when it is economically beholden to those who may wish to do the U.S. harm. The immediate economic threat that is posed by China has handcuffed our leaders in Washington, but this is of our own doing. We made the mistake of signing onto the World Trade Organization (WTO) charter, giving away our right to control our own economy in the process. This has allowed China to gain the upper hand and given us few options to address the kind of blatant, illegal cyber attacks that are taking place.

Our leaders need to wake up and start worrying about the interests of Americans, which we cannot do as long as we are members of the WTO. We need to rid ourselves of this agreement and start governing ourselves once again.